


sweet tooth

by fledgeling



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Like, baking cookies, disclaimer; author does not know how to bake things, thats it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-10-26 21:26:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20749013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fledgeling/pseuds/fledgeling
Summary: “Eugene and I have done some pretty bad things throughout our lives, Princess.” Lance’s statement leaves a poise of unusual seriousness. There was almost something condescending about it, “Between the two of us, Eugene was the one who always wanted to forget about it.”Rapunzel doesn’t let his tone deter her, “That’s in the past though, right? You’ve both changed a lot from then.”“Maybe,” he concedes, wiping off a smear of icing left on his face, “some people never do- anyways, where were we?”Rapunzel bites back the question forming in her throat, and she tentatively reaches over to grab the bag full of chocolate chips- “Cookies.”-------------------------------A visit to the castle by a friend results in an afternoon of baking.





	sweet tooth

**Author's Note:**

> writing practice? enjoy this fic that has no deeper purpose other than, 'hey i wanna know what its like to put these two in a room together!!'

The afternoon goes on slowly as Rapunzel watches the Royal Guards lining up by the front of the castle. She was too far up high to recognize each by face, but she knew everyone was having a hard time with the way she can hear the Captain’s voice drifting upwards to her window, carried by the wind.

“Toughen up maggots!” she shakes her head, amused.

Pascal squeaks from where he’s resting on a makeshift bed made out of her hair, and she reaches down to gently pet his forehead. “It’s nothing, I’m just wondering if the Captain had other ways to encourage his men, sometimes I think they need a little push of _positive_ encouragement, you know?”

The chameleon simply whisks his tail, shrugging, before settling down into a nap.

Rapunzel pushes a bit more of her locks onto Pascal’s little green body, she was determined to keep her cold-blooded friend warm whenever he slept, her tutor had told her that they were alright even without a blanket, but Rapunzel really just wanted to keep Pascal comfortable.

A breeze blows past her face, and her gaze goes back to the courtyard, the Guards were doing laps, chanting out “One! Two!” in time with their steps. She would have considered sending out a “Go get them guys!” but her father, as requested politely by the Captain, told her to ease down with the cheering, since they seemed to distract the others more than focus.

Rapunzel sighs, leaning her cheek onto her palm and staring at the clouds lazily drifting in the sky. The rhythmic footfalls of Corona soldiers lulling her into a sense of peace.

A knock makes her sit up rigid, and she wipes the slight drool that formed from the side of her mouth before calling a hasty “Come in!”

She was surprised to see Nigel enter her room, expression distasteful. “Good afternoon, Princess.”

“Good afternoon,” Rapunzel greets back, “Is there something wrong?”

“Why-yes-actually- “ A mildly affronted cough interrupts from behind him and Nigel rolls his eyes “One of Fitzherbert’s _friends_ is looking for him.”

Rapunzel rises from her seat by the window. Pascal crawls onto her back as soon as he realized his companion was gone. “Who?” Before Nigel could answer, a man she hadn’t expected to see comes in.

“It is I, M’Lady!” he shoulders his way past Nigel, who releases an indignant squawk in response.

“You mongrel! You can’t just burst into the Princess’s quarters like that!”

Rapunzel feels a short start of pleasant surprise, “Lance? It’s good to see you!”

“As it is to see you _Mademoiselle_.” He bows extravagantly, one hand on his chest and the other stretched out behind his back.

“That is not the proper term for the _Princess_,” Nigel hisses, “Apologies Your Highness, allow me to escort this buffoon out of your premises.”

“But I just got here!” Lance retorts, though his voice dripped with amusement.

Rapunzel holds out a hand, “It’s okay, Nigel,” she smiles, only a little bit apologetic, “Lance can stay, a friend of Eugene’s is a friend of ours.”

Lance crosses his arms, sending a smug look to the smaller man, “Word of the Princess, _Nigel_.”

The Royal Adviser grumbles out an inaudible response, before heaving a sigh, “If that is what you wish.” He flashes Lance a warning glance before taking his leave.

Pascal lets out a disdainful sniff.

“Let’s do that again, shall we?” Lance says, walking towards Rapunzel before doing the same exaggerated pose earlier. “Greetings, Your Highness.”

“You don’t have to call me that,” Rapunzel tells him, “I’m fine with being called Rapunzel, and hello to you too!”

Lance’s smile grows into a lopsided grin, “’Highness’ sounds so fancy though,” he rubs the back of his head, briefly embarrassed, he had little to no care about what others thought about him, but this was sweet, caring Rapunzel, even he felt the need to be the slightest bit courteous to her (not to mention Eugene had a lot to say for that matter and speaking of which-) “Have you seen Eugene?”

“He’s out today unfortunately,” Rapunzel answers, “Were you planning to go out with him?”

“Just wanted to catch up with some stuff.” Lance promptly avoids the question, “D’you know when he’ll get back?”

Rapunzel shakes her head.

“That’s too bad.” Lance murmurs, disappointed, “I guess I’ll take my leave, then.”

“Why not stay for a while?” Rapunzel offers, she never really did officially meet Lance, and she wanted to get to know him more, “While you’re here, we can do something to pass the time.”

Lance quirks an eyebrow in interest, “You mean I can hang around here without some guard watching over me like a hawk?”

“I hope Nigel didn’t take it so that the Guards are doing that.”

“Nope, it was the Captain actually.”

Rapunzel huffs, remembering the times the Royal Guard used to do that to Eugene, she goes over to Lance and links their arms together, “We’ll show them that they can trust you now. Do you like cooking?”

Lance, surprised with the gesture, yet warming up to it immediately, smirks cheekily. “I’m a bit of a baker, if that’s what you mean.”

\--

The Royal Chefs were a little bit more than reluctant to let Lance in the bakery, but no one could ever resist Rapunzel’s puppy dog eyes, and soon enough, Lance even finds himself wearing one of the more, professional aprons. Pascal has one on too, just infinitely smaller, and a toque to go along with it, Lance doesn’t know where Rapunzel got it from, but he wasn’t about to question it.

“Now.” Rapunzel brushes away flour from her own apron, “What do you want to bake?”

“Hmmm, let’s see,” he taps his chin contemplatively, and Rapunzel curiously examines a few of the ingredients laid out for them on the table. “What do you think will make do for a good snack this afternoon?”

“Cookies?” the Princess suggests, eyeing a bag with the words ‘chocolate chips’ on them, “I could bake Eugene a cupcake when he gets back too! He’s usually hungry when he returns.”

“Cookies it is then.” Lance proclaims, then he looks at Rapunzel, hands on his hips, “How do you make cookies again?”

“I thought you knew how to bake?”

He shrugs nonchalantly, “Can you blame me? I’m rusty, the prison doesn’t exactly offer their prisoners baking lessons, the least I could make out of flour is the smallest- but delicious if I might add- bread.”

Rapunzel snorts, “Fair enough, Lance Strongbow.”

“I may be a conman, but at least I’m willing to learn!” He stretches his arms out dramatically, “Teach me your ways, O’ Great Rapunzel.”

“So I shall,” Rapunzel decides to play along, grinning as she did a little curtsy. It’s not everyday someone would be so willing to goof around- Eugene sometimes did, sure, but more often than not he was only doing it for her sake- she wanted him to have fun too.

“We’ll start with the batter.” Rapunzel says out loud, she strides over to the oven and preheats it up to a few hundred degrees, “We’ll need butter- “

“Check.” Lance calls.

“Sugar.”

“Check.”

“Eggs.”

“Check.”

“Baking soda.”

“I’m going to assume it’s this thing over here so check.”

“Then that’s pretty much it!” Rapunzel clasps her hands together, “Start mixing the butter and sugar, please, I’ll see if we have some icing to put on our cookies here.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” Lance pulls up a bowl from a cabinet and grabs a large flat wooden spoon in the process. His tone was cool, but his eyes were shining with interest. “But aren’t cookies just a hybrid of biscuits and bread with chocolate?”

Rapunzel’s smile grows cheekily when she finds a container filled with vanilla cream. She hopes the chefs won’t mind if they used a little bit over than half of it. “It adds great taste! I’ll need some for the cupcake too, I like mine with lots of frosting.”

“Is that so?” Lance pours a few cups of sugar into his bowl, he then delicately starts mashing up the butter, easy considering the room was warm. “I suppose Eugene is kind of the sweet tooth.”

“All the more reason to add some! Do you like sweet things?”

“Not as much as Eugene, surprising, I know.” Lance holds a hand over his chest, “I’m more a savory type of person, right now I just felt like eating something sweet.”

He winks. Rapunzel laughs.

Once Lance finishes mixing up the butter and sugar (“This is surprisingly tiring.”) Rapunzel helps him in cracking in the eggs, then stirring in the flour and baking soda. The work is easy enough, Pascal just spends the time taking his nap in a basket that contained fruit.

The batter was done. Lance inconspicuously slides over to the container filled with icing. Rapunzel pretends not to notice, failing discreetly as her chuckles slip out of her mouth by the time the ‘thief’ already chucked a spoonful of the confectionery into his mouth.

Lance appreciates the sentiment. “This is ridiculously sweet.”

“That’s the same thing Eugene said when I had celebrated my first day at Corona.”

“Excuse me.”

The two turn around to spot one of the chefs looking annoyed from the bakery’s entrance.

“_Princess_.” He spits the word out contemptuously, staring at Lance. “May I ask what in the suns name is he _doing_ with our icing?”

“I’m sorry!” Rapunzel blurts out. “He wasn’t going to eat the whole thing.”

Lance huffs, “It was just a spoonful!”

The chef wrinkles his nose derisively, “Right,” he shakes his head, leaving and muttering under his breath, “Who lets some despicable criminal in with no regard of castle rules?”

Rapunzel winces at the comment, not everyone was happy with every single one of her choices, she learned that with Monty, but that didn’t mean it stung any less.

“Some people have no taste.” Lance says, unperturbed.

“I’m sorry about that.” Rapunzel’s shoulders droop.

“Sorry about what?”

“Him calling you a criminal.”

Lance looks confused, “Where’s the lie?”

“It’s not fair for them to keep judging you all so harshly.” Rapunzel explains, “All of that should be left behind.”

To her surprise, Lance scoffs, “You can’t really blame them.”

She blinks at him, and he continues.

“Eugene and I have done some pretty bad things throughout our lives, Princess.” Lance’s statement leaves a poise of unusual seriousness. There was almost something condescending about it, “Between the two of us, Eugene was the one who always wanted to forget about it.”

Rapunzel doesn’t let his tone deter her, “That’s in the past though, right? You’ve both changed a lot from then.”

“Maybe,” he concedes, wiping off a smear of icing left on his face, “some people never do- anyways, where were we?”

Rapunzel bites back the question forming in her throat, and she tentatively reaches over to grab the bag full of chocolate chips- “Cookies.”

“Right.” Lance quips, already back to his chipper self. “Mind if I?” he makes grabby hands at the bag.

“Sure?”

He controls himself a little bit better this time, only allowing a maximum of five chips to fall in his mouth before adding a handful into the batter. Rapunzel is surprised at how easily he manages to change his mood so drastically, and her thoughts fall back to his oldest friend; in a lot of ways, the two former crooks were similar. Eugene likes to put on a mask all the time.

By the time they’ve put the cookies into the oven, Rapunzel sits back on a chair. Lance gives her a curious glance. “I thought you were going to bake Eugene a cupcake?”

“I’m just taking a break.” Rapunzel says, mostly to herself, “Or maybe not, probably.”

Lance sits down on the counter. He doesn’t say anything, and it’s what compels Rapunzel to start talking.

“Do you know that you remind me of Eugene?”

“Lil’ ol’ me? Reminding you of _Eugene_?” Lance was practically holding back his laughter, “I mean, _yeah_ we were both thieves, but if you asked Eugene himself, I think he’d be offended.”

“No, that’s not what I meant.” Rapunzel bites the inside of her cheek, “Were both of you so..?” she gestures around with her hands.

“Charming?” Lance offers jokingly, “Dashingly handsome for a bunch of backwater rogues?”

Rapunzel releases a short breath. “I mean, you’re not wrong?”

Lance lets out a guffaw, Rapunzel squirms uncomfortably in her chair, “I’m trying to be serious here.”

“Serious was never my strong suite.” Lance counters, though he was smiling, “Being hungry? Now that’s something I can get behind, the cookies ready yet?”

“Check if they’re a bit golden brown at the edges,” she tries not to show her disappointment, “If not I think we should leave them for a few minutes.”

It’s a bit weird for Rapunzel, to see how Lance acts. She wonders if this is what Eugene meant when he said that he was one of the odder people in his life.

“Not as eccentric as you are,” Eugene had replied when asked, “Maybe just as, but yeah, not as eccentric as you.”

“That’s not very definitive.” Rapunzel shoved lightly at his side with an elbow, “What do you mean by eccentric?”

He rubbed his goatee, “He’s very… _unique_. Like, bear with me here, he’s cheerful, for one- like you! But honestly, the both of you could _not_ be any more different. Let’s just say, he has this… weird way of dealing with things, sometimes it helps, sometimes it’s annoying.” He shrugged. “Most of the time, he’s just being Lance.”

Rapunzel thinks she can get that now, to an extent.

“I think these cookies are ready to go.” Lance calls, he sends Rapunzel a questioning look, “Still thinking about that stuff I said earlier?”

“Honestly? I am.”

“Look, Princess,” The man holds an innocent tint to his words, “Not that I blame you, but I’m honestly not the best person to talk about this, sometimes I just tend to blurt out what I want to say, like when you stub a toe and you scream out ‘OW’”

Rapunzel wrinkles her nose, “I know, I understand. I just wish I Eugene would be more open to things like that.”

“Oh?”

“You know how I said he’s out today? He does that sometimes- taking long walks somewhere in the town or outside of it, he likes to think alone- that’s what he told me, but I’m a bit worried that he’s been hiding things from me because he doesn’t want me to worry.” She doesn’t really know why she’s so worried, she _trusts_ Eugene, but isn’t it just like him? To hide how he feels to keep her from worrying? _It’s not like you’re any different_, a tiny voice reprimands, Rapunzel shakes the thought away, that was for a different time.

Lance hums the whole time, “Have you tried talking with him?”

“Well,” Rapunzel rubs her shoulder self-consciously.

“Ah, then there you have it.” He opens up the oven, and the smell of baked goodness overcomes the kitchen, Rapunzel realizes how hungry she is. “Hand me those mittens, yeah?”

She does as told, yet, Rapunzel isn’t really done talking, “Are you always like this?”

Lance pulls out the tray of cookies and settles them on the counter before replying, “I’d joke around and say that yes, I am always hungry, but something tells me that that’s not what you were going to ask.”

“I don’t mean this in a bad way, but are always so dismissive of things like this?”

“I prefer the term-“ he waves a gloved hand to emphasize this, “_carefree._”

When Rapunzel stays silent, he sends a smirk her way and continues, “I just like to ignore the bad things and appreciate the good ones, except when it’s in front of my nose, like spiders- I _hate_ spiders. But I can’t ignore them, so I scream and run away! That may seem cowardly, but I at least am being honest, why mull over something so.. ‘eh’ when I can just enjoy what’s in front of me?”

He eyes their finished product hungrily, “Like these cookies!”

When he grabs a hold of one, and eats it up despite just being out of the oven for a few minutes, it doesn’t seem to bother him.

Nothing seemed to bother Lance. Except for the occasional spider, and probably most things that are commonly regarded as dangerous, and okay more than once Rapunzel finds him getting spooked by Pascal, but in the form of expressions and feelings, he was probably the most blunt out of all of them.

“Do you want some milk with that?” Rapunzel asks.

Lance devours his second helping without a second thought, “Yes please!”

**Author's Note:**

> sorry if they were ooc, thank u for reading! ill probably edit this tomorrow or something  
on a side not if eugene ever had a fan club raps would definitely be pres w lance as her vice pres lmao


End file.
